Nuclear factor .kappa.B (NF-.kappa.B) is a homo- or heterodimer of members of the Rel family of transcriptional activators that is involved in the inducible expression of a wide variety of important cellular genes including numerous cytokines, cytokine receptors, major histocompatibility antigens, serum amyloid A protein, etc. as well as many viral genes including genes of HIV, SV40, cytomegalovirus, etc. Several tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor (TRAF) proteins have been identified and shown to be involved in the signaling of various cellular responses including cytotoxicity, anti-viral activity, immuno-regulatory activities and the transcriptional regulation of a number of genes.
Accordingly, the ability to exogenously modulate the activity of NF-.kappa.B and/or TRAF proteins would yield therapeutic application for numerous clinical indications. In addition, components of such pathways would provide valuable target reagents for automated, cost-effective, high throughput drug screening assays and hence would have immediate application in domestic and international pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development programs. The present invention provides novel TRAF-2 associated kinase proteins which regulate TRAF-2 function, their use, e.g. in drug screens, and nucleic acids encoding the same.